There is an almost inexplicable silence from world leaders on this question.
It is beyond doubt that China covered up the serious of the situation when the plague first started in Wuhan. Even the FT notes this.
But did it come from the lab or by jumping across species in the Wuhan wet market? Scientists all over the world have lined up to argue for the latter. Nonetheless a few scientists are prepared to openly discuss the possibility of origin in the Wuhan level-4 bio-lab and not dismiss it as a conspiracy theory. [1]
That this is a sensitive topic is evident from this BBC piece. [2] They are at pains to call the lab theory “unsubstantiated” but their own research shows Chinese secret services at pains to stop them investigating. Why? (This article also makes it clear that the current WHO inquiry is rigged to avoid the lab option from the start).
The lab in Wuhan is known to have done gain-of-function experiments in the past. There is a real possibility that Sars-Cov-2 is the result of a gain-of-function experiment which accidentally escaped. The likelihood of the epidemic starting in just the one city in China with a level 4 bio lab where research was being conducted into bat-origin coronaviruses and having nothing at all to do with the lab is improbable. That there is no evidence for the lab theory doesn’t make it a “conspiracy theory”. (There is no evidence per se for life on Jupiter’s moon Europa; but no one says this is a conspiracy theory).
Why this silence from world leaders? Some answers may be provided in this WSJ article. The liberal elites see the idea as being associated with Trump and protectionism and they won’t touch it for that reason. The world is dependent on China and no one wants to offend the economic giant. Still, objectively speaking, the lab theory is a very strong candidate.
Update 6-1-21
China is blocking the already watered down WHO mission. [3] Why could this be? And why does this news – that the country of origin of this deadly pandemic is not cooperating with the WHO in attempting to understand the causes get no public comment from the political leadership of the UK or EU? That really is strange.
Update 15-1-21
This article in the Telegraph characterises the consensus narrative which the Western liberal press is trying to establish. The idea that Sars-Cov-2 may have originated in the level 4 lab in Wuhan is a “conspiracy theory” which has “been roundly dismissed by the global scientific community”. But it hasn’t. True; the consensus is it is not an artificially modified virus. But there are dissenting voices from within the scientific world. “Sky News has spoken to four other scientists who believe that the lab theory should not be ruled out, though they did not say it was more likely than a natural explanation” [1] Some of these dissenting voices suggest that it was indeed the result of a gain-of-function experiment and it accidentally escaped. I particularly like this quote from Professor Richard Ebright of the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University in New Jersey, (who is not one of the four scientists mentioned above):
Persons who use term ‘conspiracy theory’ to describe possibility of accidental release reveal themselves to be unable to read, unable to reason, or uninterested in truth
Which is indeed true – and which, as this post points out, is how the vast majority of the Western media is behaving, which is why it is so strange. It is like there is some kind of collective fear. There is a monster in the room but everyone agrees not to mention it.
Notes
- https://news.sky.com/story/former-head-of-mi6-says-theory-coronavirus-was-made-in-wuhan-lab-must-not-be-dismissed-as-conspiracy-12021693
- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55364445
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/jan/05/coronavirus-live-news-england-to-enter-third-lockdown-as-new-york-detects-first-case-of-new-uk-strain#block-5ff4a86b8f08d7f90ab76f85